Leverage relationships with your clients, friends, and associates to help you find what you need and want

By Anne Bachrach

A.M. Enterprises (The Accountability Coach)

When talking with a coaching client one day, I was telling him how I sent an email to about a lot of people I know who might be able to refer me to someone who was looking for a job in a particular area. I told him how shocked I was at how many people responded with people they knew who were looking for a job in the area I needed help, and I received about 5 resumes within a few hours.

I was telling him this because he is looking for some good candidates to review for positions he has open. Instead of hiring someone to help him, I suggested he try this first and see what kind of response he gets.

Here’s a sample of what he sent:

We need your help. We are looking to hire 3 people and are reaching out to our clients and friends to see if you know of anyone you can recommend to us.

We are in need of a senior accountant who can gather facts and do work accurately. The individual must have a good understanding of federal and state taxes for individuals, partnerships, corporations, trusts, gift taxes, and private foundations. Accounting experience with small businesses is required. The individual should have a car to service clients in the NY Tri-State area.

Personal skills include:- Be a good communicator
- Have excellent written and oral skills
- Someone who sees tasks through completion, leaving no loose ends
- Ability to work directly with clients, partners and staff
- Be able to work in high pressure environment during tax season
- Manage tasks to meet deadlines
- Be a "go to" person and leader for other staff
- Be proactive not reactive
- Professional skills include:
- Preparation & review of above tax returns
- Do tax research, analysis and develop solutions
- Tax consulting and planning for individuals and businesses
- Handle work for business clients: including bookkeeping on QuickBooks, bank reconciliations, prepare adjusting journal entries, work with bookkeeper at client's office, discuss trial balance with business owner

- Computer skills in Excel, Word, Outlook, QuickBooks, BNA planning, Fastax
- CPE must be current and person must want additional CPE
- Familiarity with Multi-state taxation
- Able to respond to government correspondence
- Represent clients at government examination

The second position is that of an Administrative Assistant with superb communication and computer skills. Ability to stay organized while supporting multiple managers is important.

We are also looking for someone to assemble tax returns during tax season. This person does not have to have any tax or accounting experience. It is detailed and methodical work. We will train the individual on our process of getting the tax returns ready for delivery to the client. Hours are flexible, so this may be a good opportunity for a student, recent graduate or a person who wants to get back into the workforce.

Please contact us if you have any questions or someone to recommend.

They received over 30 calls and 40 resumes in 1 day. He was impressed with the quality of the people sending in their resumes. Within a few days he had received in excess of 53 resumes of potential candidates to fill these positions.

Think about how you can leverage your resources to help you obtain the right team for your firm, referrals, and finding professional services, or other things that you want or need.